General

The Facebook privacy labyrinth

The ultimate guide to navigating the site’s maze of 50 privacy settings

Facebook has made privacy such a maddening maze, that users concerned about revealing too much to friends of friends of friends, or even to the general public, need to carve out a lot of time to make sure their privacy settings are up to date. While Facebook says it wants to offer precise controls for sharing on the Internet, it’s confusingly complex privacy set up seems designed to make it all but impossible to decipher. Now the New York Times has a handy-dandy graphic to help everyone (as well as an accompanying article). So toss back a few Tylenol or Advil, maybe a beer or two and settle in for a long haul—there are 50 settings with more than 170 options that all need to be clicked, un-clicked or changed.

New York Times

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.